Overview
- Two experimental buttons labeled Nano Banana and Deep Search now appear below the search box on Chrome’s New Tab page in the Canary build.
- Selecting Nano Banana switches the placeholder text to “Create an image,” indicating a direct path into Google’s image generation workflow.
- Choosing Deep Search changes the prompt to “Help me research,” pointing to a Gemini-powered, multi-query research flow, with naming oscillating between Deep Search and Deep Research in coverage.
- Early tests show the features are unstable and gated behind chrome://flags, including the NTP Next Features toggle, with underlying code already visible in the Chromium project.
- Reporters view the prominent placement as a bid to counter AI-first browsers such as Comet and ChatGPT Atlas, and Google has not given a timeline for wider rollout.